China's Spiritual Awakening

[bananas]

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_03/b4067050290718.htm

China's Spiritual Awakening
Why a growing number of successful urban professionals are flocking to Buddhism

by Dexter Roberts


On the first day of every lunar month, Buddhists crowd the Yonghe Temple to burn incense. Mark Leong / Redux

In early December, Beijing's in-crowd converged on the central business district for the opening of the Kunlun gallery. Sipping Veuve Clicquot and Mumm champagne, the real estate tycoons, stock market warriors, and Prada-clad celebrities gawked at Ming Dynasty Buddhist statuary and 15th century scroll paintings.

Four Tibetan art works eventually fetched $3.4 million and, at a follow-up auction eight days later, 87 pieces of Buddhist art netted $10.4 million. For the gallery's proprietor, a half-Tibetan, half-Chinese entrepreneur named Yi Xi Ping Cuo, 35, the brisk business was another testament to the popularity of Buddhism in China. "Every year there are millions more Buddhists," says Yi. "Of course they want to put a Buddhist statue in their homes to make their hearts peaceful."

Buddhism is booming—quite a paradox given the Communist Party's official atheism and its troubled relationship with the Dalai Lama. The faith's growing popularity reflects a yearning for meaning among China's yuppies, who increasingly are attracted to Buddhism's rejection of materialism and emphasis on the transitory nature of life. "They have a BMW and a house in the countryside," says Lawrence Brahm, an American who runs three boutique hotels, including one in Tibet. "And they're bored. They're realizing there's more to life than collecting toys." Buddhism's trendiness has spawned a surge in faith-related business: Flights to the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, are booked solid, monasteries are building guesthouses, and Web sites offering free downloadable mantras are proliferating.

Buddhism arrived in China from India in the first century A.D. and flourished right up to the modern era. After the Communists seized power in 1949, they discouraged religion. But like Christianity, Buddhism never entirely disappeared. Some believers continued quietly to practice at altars set up in their homes. And not long after China embraced market forces in the late 1970s and '80s, the faith reemerged in the countryside, with peasants visiting refurbished temples, where they burned incense and prayed.

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[kirby]

1. Thank God they are choosing a peaceful religion n/t

[maxsolomon]

2. since Buddhism is A-theistic

why would the government have a problem?

[Evoman]

3. You know what the world needs? Another religious superpower.

*sigh*

[Dorian Gray]

4. Buddhism is so fragmented

with so many different schools of belief, it's not exactly going to be a monolithic religious unit to be wary of. I'm personally more leery of the Chinese government than the Buddhist religious leaders. (And I lived in Hong Kong for a number of years and have traveled through China. It's an awesome country with some very special people.)

[Evoman]

5. Christianity and Islam are pretty fragmented.

And they are still fucking scary.

I guess I just don't think that what the world needs is MORE religion. As to buddhism being peaceful...isn't that what they all freakin' say?

[varkam]

6. For what it is worth...

Buddhism is generally one of the least dogmatic traditions, depending on how one defines dogmatic. It is entirely possible to be a Busshist without believing in anything supernatural or metaphysical.

It is, also generally speaking, one of the more peaceful religions given that a central tenet is that one should not harm living creatures as they are all trying to achieve enlightenment - though even it still has the potential to jump the tracks...

[Evoman]

8. Uh huh.,...and christianity was named after a guy who preached love and peace.

Since when do people listen to their gods/deities/centrel tenets/etc?

And isn't "enlightenment" as buddhist usually talk about it pretty darn supernatural? Re-incarnation, the whole bit?

I guess we'll see :shrug:.

[varkam]

10. Some sects of Buddhists believe in reincarnation.

Also, some sects tend to regard Buddha as a god in the traditional sense - but the important bit is that not everyone does. What differentiates it from the Abrahamic religions is that there isn't a lot of central dogma that one has to accept.

And what I'm saying is that in practice it has tended to be one of the most peaceful of world religions, though there are examples where that has not been the case.

[Dorian Gray]

9. I just meant in regard

to China becoming a Buddhist nation. Say what you want about the US, it is not a theocracy. (The same can not be said about Iran or some of the other Middle Eastern countries.)

But, there is no reason to worry about the Buddhist monks gaining control of the Chinese government for now. The government will just jail or deport any religious leader who poses a threat to them and instill their own puppets.

[cosmik debris]

7. They know their history

Just for fun I googled "Buddhism and war"

But Buddhism, like the other great faiths, has not always lived up to its principles - there are numerous examples of Buddhists engaging in violence and even war.

in the 14th century Buddhist fighters led the uprising that evicted the Mongols from China
in Japan, Buddhist monks trained Samurai warriors in meditation that made them better fighters
In the twentieth century Japanese Zen masters wrote in support of Japan's wars of aggression. For example, Sawaki Kodo (1880–1965) wrote this in 1942:

"It is just to punish those who disturb the public order. Whether one kills or does not kill, the precept forbidding killing (is preserved). It is the precept forbidding killing that wields the sword. It is the precept that throws the bomb."--Sawaki Kodo

In Sri Lanka the 20th century civil war between the mostly Buddhist Sinhalese majority and the Hindu Tamil minority has cost 50,000 lives.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/buddhism/buddhistethics/war.shtml